Tuesday, October 10, 1899. Isaac R. Johnson patented the modern bicycle frame.

 

Johnson was an African American.

Last edition:

Monday, October 9, 1899. Boer ultimatum.

Labels: 1890s, 1899, Boer War, British Army, British Empire, Cape Colony, Mining, Orange Free State, South African Republic (Transvaal), United Kingdom, Witwatersrand Gold Rush

Blog Mirror: 2013: A Bicycle Industry Legend Completes His Life’s Journey

 I had a Stingray.  They were the greatest boys bicycle ever.

2013: A Bicycle Industry Legend Completes His Life’s Journey

Palm Sunday, April 2, 1944. Soviets enter Romania, Rebellion in El Salvador.

Sgt. Walter Holden, Haleyville, Ala., Pfc. Raymond Holler, Route 1, Lenoir, N.C., and Pvt. John Mart, Route 2, Sanford, N.C. of the 3d Infantry Division in an obviously staged photograph at Anzio.  All three men are wearing the new M1943 uniform, which the photo was probably intended to illustrate.  The uniform featured the M1943 field jacket, the M1943 field trousers, and the M1943 combat boot.  It remained the essential Army pattern of uniform for decades, and indeed to the present day, with modifications.  Replacing earlier uniform variants would, however, take months.

Today in World War II History—April 2, 1944: Soviet troops enter Romania. First US B-29 Superfortress bomber arrives at Kharagpur, India, near Calcutta. Armed revolt erupts in El Salvador.

From Sarah Sundin's blog.

The entering of Romania was more proof, if anymore was needed, that the Third Reich was in its final act.  Romania had sought to exit the war, but had been dissuaded from doing so by the Germans.  It would start pondering that once again in earnest. 

Romania, although somewhat forgotten in the West, was not a minor power in some significant ways.  The country had the third-largest army in the Axis in Europe, behind Italy and Japan, until Italy's 1943 surrender, at which time it was the second-largest Axis power.  Its army was in fact the fourth largest in the world.  It was plagued with internal problems, however, with a rank and file that was woefully uneducated and an officer corps that was condescending towards its men.  Generally, Romanians fought better under German officers and NCO's.

It was a monarchy, but a monarchy which was, at the time, led by a military dictator.

Hitler issued his directive 54 with the topic of stopping the Russian advance, which obviously wasn't going to happen.

The rebellion in El Salvador was a pro-democracy one against the country's fascist military dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez and included significant military elements.  Martinez admired Mussolini and Hitler, and like Hitler he was a vegetarian.  El Salvador declared war on the Axis in December 1941, but it took no actual part in the fighting and refused US requests to station troops there.

The rebellion would be violently put down, but it would nonetheless lead to Martinez' fall a month later.

Martinez was killed in a labor dispute with his taxi driver in 1966 while living in exile in Honduras.

The Japanese 15th Army (Mutaguchi) continued to advance.

The Italian Communist Party declared its support for the Badoglio government.

The 1944 Tour of Flanders bicycle race commenced.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, April 1, 1944. The closing curtain for the Axis.

1940s, 1944, Admiralty Islands Campaign, Blog Mirror, Caroline Islands, Combined Bomber Offensive, Garden, George S. Patton, Northern Ireland, the spoken word, Victory Gardens, World War Two

Wednesday, December 29, 1943. Rationing Bicycles

F.F. Calkin, of Cadillac, Michigan, and J. Ferber, of Camden, New Jersey, using British bicycles for transportation in England, 1943.

Today In Wyoming's History: December 29: 1943  Wartime quotas of new adult bicycles for January cut in half, with 40 being allotted to Wyoming.Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Bicycles at high school in Texas, 1943.

This was no small matter.  Bicycles had increased enormously in importance due to the war.  The National Park Service notes:

The government rationed bicycles from July 1942 to September 1945. The goal was to reduce the amount of wartime materials used for bicycles, but also to ensure that those who rode instead of drove could get one (thereby saving on car tires and gasoline).[10]

Shortly after the December 1941 Japanese attacks, the government took over control of the bicycle industry. They halted the bicycle trade entirely, and forbade bicycles from leaving “a factory, a jobber, a wholesaler, or a retailer’s place of business after 11:59 tonight” (April 3, 1942). They hoped this would prevent hoarding, and also gave them the opportunity to evaluate supply and demand.

The government issued specifications for what became known as Victory bicycles. These were designed and built only for adults; bikes for children were not manufactured during the war. Victory bikes were lightweight, weighing no more than 31 pounds (lighter by about a third than pre-war). They were made of steel only with no copper or nickel parts, and a minimum of chrome plating. Paint was used instead on handlebars and wheel rims. Accessories like chain guards, bells, and whitewall tires were removed, and a maximum tire width of 1-3/8" was set.[12] Behind the scenes, there were disagreements between the OPA and the Wartime Production Board (WPB) about the necessity of bicycle rationing – were bicycles a luxury? Was the rubber needed to make bicycle tires better used for other war needs while people continued to put wear on the car tires they already owned? This debate was eventually resolved, and Victory bikes went into production.[13]

When rationing began in July 1942, the OPA had 150,000 Victory bicycles and 90,000 pre-war bicycles to divide up. To get a bicycle, you had to apply at the local rationing board and prove you needed a bicycle. For example, your job was too far to walk to, and there was no good public transportation. By August 1942, access to bicycles was further limited to health care workers, school teachers, fire fighters, and others in critical occupations. New and used bicycles became much in demand, as thousands used them to get to their war jobs.[14] Despite this, the numbers of bicycles made and allocated by rationing boards never met the actual demand.[15]

Sailors who had bicycled to Arlington Farms, a residence for women who worked in the U.S. government for the duration of the war, from Washington in search of a date, 1943.

Leo Pasvolsky of the State Department finished the draft for the United Nations Charter.

Gen. Eisenhower ordered Allied Commanders to avoid attacking historic Italian monuments to the extent that this was possible; stating:

We are bound to respect those monuments so far as war allows. If we have to choose between destroying a famous building and sacrificing our own men, then our men's lives count infinitely more and the buildings must go. But the choice is not always so clear-cut as that. In many cases the monuments can be spared without any detriment to operational needs.

The Royal Air Force resumed bombing Berlin, its Christmas hiatus having ended.

The Red Army took Korosten in Ukraine.

The Italian submarine Axum was scuttled after running aground off of Morea, Greece.  The boat had a very successful war record.

Monday, October 15, 1923. The Declaration of Forty Six. Teapot Dome Hearings begin.

The Yankees won the World Series, beating the Giants in game six 4 to 2.

Germany issued new currency, scheduled on the prewar gold backed Mark, but backed by land and businesses which were subject to a forced mortgage.

Forty Six members of the Soviet Communist Party signed a declaration regarding their concerns about the party.  It stated:

15 October 1923

Top Secret

TO THE POLITBURO OF THE CC OF THE RCP(b)

The extreme seriousness of the situation forces us (in the interests of our party, in the interests of the working class) to tell you openly that continuation of the policy of the majority of the Politburo threatens the entire party with grave misfortune. The economic and financial crisis beginning at the end of July this year, with all the political consequences flowing from it, including those within the party, has mercilessly revealed the inadequacy of the party leadership, both in the economic realm, and especially in the area of inner-party relations.

The haphazard, poorly thought through, and unsystematic decisions of the CC, which hasn't made ends meet in the economy, have led to a situation where, given the presence of undoubtedly major successes in the realm of industry, agriculture, finances and transport, - successes which were achieved by the economy of the nation spontaneously, not thanks to but in spite of the inadequate leadership, or, to be more precise, the absence of any leadership, - we are faced not only with the perspective of the halting of these successes, but with a severe crisis of the economy as a whole.

Chervonets 1922

We stand before the approaching break-down of the chervonets currency, which spontaneously turned into the basic currency before the liquidation of the budget deficit; we face a credit crisis in which the State Bank cannot, without the risk of severe shocks, finance not only industry and the trade of industrial goods, but even the purchase of grain for export; we face the cessation of the sale of industrial goods because of high prices, which can be explained, on the one hand, by the complete absence of planned, organizational leadership in industry, and on the other, by incorrect credit policy; we face the impossibility of carrying out the grain export program because of the inability to purchase grain; we face extremely low prices for food products, which are ruinous for the peasantry and which threaten massive cutbacks in agricultural production; we face the interruption of wage payments, which evokes the natural dissatisfaction of the workers; we face budget chaos, which directly creates chaos in the government apparatus; "revolutionary" means of cutbacks in drawing up the budget and new, unplanned cutbacks during its realization have gone from being temporary measures to a permanent phenomenon, which relentlessly jolts the state apparatus and, as a result of the absence of planning in the cutbacks - causes accidental and spontaneous shocks to it.

The Scissors: retail and wholesale prices of agricultural and industrial goods in the Soviet Union July 1922 to November 1923.

All these are elements of an economic, credit and financial crisis which has already begun. If we do not immediately take extensive, well thought out, planned and energetic measures, if the present lack of leadership continues, we face the possibility of unusually sharp economic shocks, inevitably bound up with domestic political complications and with the complete paralysis of our foreign activity and capability. And the latter, as everyone understands, is now more necessary than ever before; upon it depends the fate of the world revolution and the working class of all countries.

In precisely the same way, we see in the realm of inner-party relations the same incorrect leadership, paralyzing and demoralizing the party, which is particularly clearly felt during the crisis we are passing through.

We explain this not by the political incapability of the present party leaders; on the contrary, no matter how much we differ with them in evaluating the situation and in choosing the methods to change it, we think that today's leaders under any conditions couldn't help but be appointed by the party to leading posts in the workers' dictatorship. Rather we explain it by the fact that, under the guise of official unity, we actually have a one-sided selection of personnel, who can adapt to the views and sympathies of a narrow circle, and a one-sided direction of activity. As a result of the party leadership being distorted by such narrow considerations, the party has to a significant degree ceased to be that living, independent collective which is sensitive to the changes in living reality, precisely because it is connected with thousands of threads to this reality. Instead of this, we observe an ever progressing, barely disguised division of the party into a secretarial hierarchy and into "laymen", into professional party functionaries, chosen from above, and the other party masses, who take no part in social life.

This is a fact which is well known to every member of the party. Members of the party who are dissatisfied with this or that directive from the CC or even a provincial committee, or who are plagued by doubts, or who have noted "to themselves" various mistakes, things out of line or disorder of some sort, are afraid to speak about it at party gatherings; even worse, they are afraid to talk to one another unless they consider their interlocutor to be absolutely reliable, in the sense of not being "talkative"; free discussion within the party has virtually disappeared, party public opinion has been stifled. Now it is not the party, it is not the party's broad masses who nominate and choose provincial conferences and party congresses, which in turn nominate and choose provincial committees and the Central Committee of the RCP. On the contrary, it is the secretarial hierarchy, the party hierarchy which to an ever greater degree chooses the delegates to the conferences and congresses, which to an ever greater degree are becoming the executive conferences of this hierarchy. The regime which has been established within the party is absolutely intolerable; it is killing the independence of the party, replacing the party with a selected bureaucratic apparatus which functions smoothly during normal times, but which inevitably misfires during moments of crisis, and which threatens to become absolutely helpless when confronted with the serious events which lie ahead.

The situation which has developed is explained by the fact that the regime of fractional dictatorship within the party which unfolded after the Xth Congress has outlived itself. Many of us consciously chose not to resist such a regime. The about-face of 1921, followed by Lenin's illness, demanded, as far as some of us were concerned, a dictatorship within the party as a temporary measure. Other comrades from the very beginning reacted to it skeptically or opposed it. In any case, by the XIIth Party Congress this regime had become obsolete. It began to show the other side of the coin. The inner-party bonds began to weaken. The party began to wither. Extreme oppositional, even openly unhealthy, tendencies within the party began to take on an anti-party character, for there was no inner-party, comradely discussion of the most acute questions. And such a discussion could have revealed, without any difficulty, the unhealthy character of these tendencies, both to the party masses, and to the majority of their participants. As a result, we have seen the formation of illegal groupings, which draw party members away from the party, and we have witnessed the party losing contact with the working masses.

If the situation which has developed is not radically changed in the very near future, the economic crisis in Soviet Russia and the crisis of the fractional dictatorship within the party will strike heavy blows to the workers' dictatorship in Russia and to the Russian Communist Party. With such a burden on its shoulders, the dictatorship of the proletariat in Russia, and its leader, the RCP, cannot enter the field of the impending new international shocks in any other way than with the perspective of failure along the entire front of proletarian struggle. Of course, it would at first glance be easiest of all to resolve the question in the following sense: in view of the situation, there is not and there cannot be any place now for raising the questions of changing the party's course, of placing on the agenda new and complex tasks, etc., etc. But it is absolutely clear that such a point of view would be a position of officially closing one's eyes to the actual situation, since the entire danger lies in the fact that there is no genuine ideological or practical unity in the face of exceedingly complex domestic and foreign situations. In the party, the more silently and secretly the struggle is waged, the more ferocious it becomes. If we raise this question before the Central Committee, then it is precisely in order to find the swiftest and most painless resolution of the contradictions which are tearing the party apart, and to rapidly place the party on healthy foundations. We need real unity in discussions and in actions. The impending ordeals require the unanimous, fraternal, absolutely conscious, extremely energetic, and extremely unified activity of all the members of our party.

The fractional regime must be eliminated, and this must be done first of all by those who have created it; it must be replaced by a regime of comradely unity and inner-party democracy.

In order to realize all that has been outlined above, and to take the necessary measures to extricate ourselves from the economic, political and party crisis, we propose that the CC, as a first and most urgent step, call a conference of members of the CC with the most prominent and active party cadres, in order that the list of those invited include a number of comrades who have views concerning the situation which differ from the views of the majority of the CC.

E. Preobrazhensky

B. Breslav

L. Serebriakov

While not agreeing with certain points in this letter explaining the causes of the situation which has developed, and feeling that the party has come up against problems which cannot fully be resolved by the methods employed up until now, I fully endorse the final conclusion of the present letter.

A. Beloborodov 11 October 1923

I am in complete agreement with the proposals, although I differ with several points concerning motives.

A. Rosengolts

M. Alsky

In general, I share the thoughts of this appeal. The need for a direct and open approach to all our sore points is so overdue, that I fully support the proposal to call the indicated conference, in order to choose the practical ways capable of leading us out of the accumulated difficulties.

Antonov-Ovseenko

A. Venediktov

I. N. Smirnov

G. Piatakov

V. Obolensky (Osinsky)

N. Muralov

T. Sapronov

A. Goltsman

The situation in the party and the international situation are such that they demand the extraordinary concentration and unity of party forces more than ever before. While ascribing to the declaration, I view it exclusively as an attempt to create unity in the party and to prepare it for upcoming events. Naturally, at the present moment there can be no talk of inner-party struggle in any form whatsoever. It is necessary for the CC to soberly assess the situation and to adopt urgent measures to eliminate dissatisfaction within the party, as well as within the non-party masses.

12 October 1923. A. Goltsman

11 October 1923. V. Maksimovsky

L. Sosnovsky

Danishevsky

P. Mesyatsev

G. Khorechko

I do not agree with a number of assessments in the first part of the declaration; I do not agree with a number of characterizations of the inner-party situation. At the same time I am deeply convinced that the state of the party demands the adopting of radical measures, for things are not well in the party at the present time. I fully share the practical proposal.

A. Bubnov 11 October 1923

A. Voronsky

V. Smirnov

E. Bosh

I. Byk

V. Kosior

F. Lokatskov

I am in complete agreement with the evaluation of the economic situation. I consider the weakening of the political dictatorship at the present moment to be dangerous, but things must be aired out. I find a conference to be absolutely necessary.

Kaganovich

Drobnis

P. Kovalenko

A. E. Minkin

V. Yakovleva

I am in complete agreement with the practical proposals.

B. Eltsin

I sign with the same reservations as comrade Bubnov.

M. Levitin

I sign with the same reservations as Bubnov, sharing neither the form, nor the tone, which all the more convinces me to agree with the practical part of the given declaration.

I. Poliudov

O. Shmidel

V. Vaganian

I. Stukov

A. Lobanov

R. Farbman

S. Vasilchenko

Mikh. Zhakov

A. Puzakov

N. Nikolaev

Since during recent times I have been somewhat removed from the work of the party centers, I abstain from the judgements of the two leading paragraphs of the introductory part; I agree with the rest.

Averin

I am in agreement with the part outlining the economic and political situation of the country. I feel that in the part which depicts the inner-party situation, a certain exaggeration has been allowed. It is absolutely necessary to immediately take measures to preserve the unity of the party.

M. Boguslavsky

I am not fully in agreement with the first part, which speaks about the economic situation of the country; the latter is indeed very serious and demands great attention, but up until now the party has not advanced people who would have been able to lead better than those who have been leading until now. Regarding the question of the inner-party situation, I feel that there is a significant portion of truth in everything which has been said, and I consider it necessary to take emergency measures.

F. Dudnik

Most of them would end up with bullets in the back of their heads during Stalin's long reign.

Jal P. Bapasola, Rustom B. Bhumgara and Adi B. Hakim set out from Bombay with the goal of bicycling around the world, which they would achieve by March 18, 1928.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys began hearings on California and Teapot Dome oil leases.

Equine transport, Ireland, October 15, 1923.

 

Blog Mirror: Kids with Bicycles Wanted for Wartime Deliveries

 

Kids with Bicycles Wanted for Wartime Deliveries

Saturday, August 12, 1922.

 

Tuesday, August 23, 1921. The pieces of the Ottoman Empire.

President Harding signed the New York Harbor bill into law.

I have utterly no idea what the statute did, but the photograph is of fairly high quality.

Faisal I bin Hussein bin al-Hashemi was crowned King of Iraq.  The kingdom was sort of a consolation prize for not getting Syria, and not a particularly good one.  In later years, he'd note that "this country is ungovernable."

In another part of the former Ottoman Empire, the Battle of Sakarya commenced in Turkey.  It would prove to be a long, and pivotal, battle in the Greco Turkish War, with the Turks ultimately prevailing three weeks later.

And a photographer took the following photo contrasting new and old two wheeled means of transportation.

Monday, August 8, 1921. Prize bicycle

 Theresa Ebert with the Ranger "Superbe" bicycle she received in The Washington Times subscription contest. (Source: Washington Times, August 8, 1921)

Friday, July 25, 1941. The U.S. Freezes Assets, Churchill Plans a Trip, Germany Advances Horrors.

Franklin Roosevelt froze Japanese assets in the United States, with the immediate cause of this being the Japanese occupation of French Indochina.

The Japanese entering Saigon. Bicycles were a common means of conveyance in most armies at the time, with the U.S. being a real exception.

It'd be a mistake, of course, to view that as the sole cause, but it was instrumental in it.  Japan was getting more aggressive in its expansion, having now moved its military into Indochina.  It technically had French acquiescence to this, but as a practical matter, Vichy had little it could do about it.  Japan had already intervened militarily in the northern part of Indochina a year prior, so they were already there.   That had in fact resulted in fighting between the Vichy French and the Japanese, but Japanese occupation was a fact.  Indeed, Japan had already secured permission to garrison troops in southern Indochina.

Free French poster criticizing the Vichy administration's collaboration with Japan.

It hadn't because it remained concerned about the Soviet Union.  It's presence in Indochina had been ancillary to their war with China, but with increasingly difficult relations with the United States, and the United Kingdom, that focus changed once Germany invaded the Soviet Union.  The Japanese correctly guessed that the Soviets wouldn't interfere with them in any fashion while they were fighting the Germans.  Given that, Imperial Japan set its sights on the Dutch East Indies, and its oil, and war with the United States.

While Japanese occupation of Indochina was already a fact, the formal change is something that really couldn't be ignored by the U.S.  It was one step closer to war by both parties.

Oddly, China's assets were also frozen, and this by request of Chiang Kai Shek, the leader of Nationalist China.  While not exactly knowing why, this may be because Chiang had concerns about Chinese assets being used by the Japanese and, of course, he also faced a domestic competitor in the form of the Chinese Communist Party, which was contesting the Nationalist for control of China.

Also, on this day King George VI gave permission for Prime Minister Churchill to travel to the United States to meet with Roosevelt.  Permission was a formality, of course.

Not a formality was the growing relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt, often described as a friendship but in reality a species of alliance.  Churchill's visit was to be a secret and was part of the building of that alliance.

Germany established Reichskommissariat Ostland, the administrative unit for the occupied Baltics and Belarus, on this day.  The plan for the region was to Germanize the Baltics and to settle it with Germans.  The region was regarded as "European" by the Germans due to the prior influence of Germany, Sweden and Denmark.  The Belarusians were regarded as hopelessly backwards peasants who would be exploited.  Jews, of course, were to be killed.

Germany began to act on these plans immediately, which is somewhat of a surprise in context.  Not only did the Germans begin to slaughter Jewish residents of the area, along with Communists, but it also began to move German settlers into the areas it had taken.  Indeed, while he has said little about it, one individual I know had a grandfather who had moved into the Eastern lands, resulting of course in his status as a refugee later on.

Tuesday July 19, 1921. Urban transportation.

The Los Angeles Fire Department retired its last horse drawn fire engine.  It was the last one used by a major American city, thus bringing the era closer to a close.

Bicycles of course remained the means of transportation for newspaper deliverers.  One was photographed for the Times, of one of their own, obviously turned out in his finery.

Monday, July 18, 1921. Start of the workweek.

Pearl Kane, a newspaper "girl" for the Washington Times, on July 18, 1921.

On this first day of the workweek, for most people, and more typically the first day of the workweek then, as opposed to now, the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis was administered for the first time in Paris, France.

Getting tuberculosis is bad.

Getting COVID 19 is bad too.  If you haven't been vaccinated, get vaccinated.

Babe Ruth hit the longest home run in the history of major league baseball, 560 feet, which knocked the ball out of Tiger Stadium.

General Pershing inspected the troops at Camp Humphries, Virginia.

Camp Humphries was also spelled "Humphreys" and is now part of Ft. Belvoir.

It was a very active training range at this time, hosting not only units of the U.S. Army, but also ROTC.

Meanwhile, the United States Army Air Corps spent the day bombing the former German cruiser the SMS Frankfurt off of Virginia's coast.

Well, not the day.  It sank within twenty-six minutes of being hit.

This was all part of Billy Mitchell's effort to prove that aircraft could sink ships, any ship, and that effectively they were now the premier service in the defense of the coast. . . it not more than that.  The Navy didn't particularly like it, and it'd later end up providing part of the background to Mitchell's eventual court marshal.

Maxim Gorky, the still respected Soviet writer who was an occasional tool of the Stalin's wrote a letter on behalf of famine victims in the Soviet Union.

The famine was certainly real, brought on by the forced collectivization of agriculture in the Soviet Union.

Monday, June 20, 1921. Wheels.

It seemed to be a bicycle themed day.  President Harding met with a group of young men and their bicycles.

And two boys who were joint winners of a bicycle from the Washington Post posed with it, although they didn't look too thrilled. . . perhaps because there were two of them.

Rep. Robertson on June 20, 1921.

In Congress, Representative Alice Mary Robertson presided over the U.S. House of Representatives, thereby becoming the first woman to do so.

Robertson was a strong willed personality who had defeated an incumbent in order to take office, making her the second woman to obtain a position in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The Republican from Oklahoma was a Native American advocate and an opponent of feminism.  She never married and served only one term, after which she retired to a dairy farm, although she held an appointed position in the Harding Administration.  Her farm was destroyed by those angered by her votes in Congress.  She died in 1931 at age 77.

The United Kingdom held a conference with its Dominions that commenced on this day.  Policy in regard to Japan was a focus of it.

June 27, 1920. Long Tours

The epic French annual sporting event, the bicycle Tour de France, commenced for 1920 on this day.



On the same day, British General Cuthbert Lucas, a veteran of the Boer War and World War One, was kidnapped by the Irish Republican Army along with two colonels. They were fishing at the time.  The colonels were released after one of them was wounded while trying to escape.

During his captivity his wife gave birth, which he became aware of as she sent him a letter simply addressed "to the IRA" informing him of the news.  Following that, his captors allowed for an exchange of letters between the couple.  While he was threatened with execution, his captors relaxed his guard after some months to allow him to escape.  Upon being recovered by the British, he termed his captors "gentlemen" and "delightful people".

May 11, 1920. Necessity, Long rides, and Representatives.

Necessity, Texas.  May 11, 1920.

Sailor Tony Pizzo passing through Washington on a Coast to Coast bicycle run handcuffed to his machine. The Handcuffs were sealed by Mayor Hylan in New York April 24th and were not to be opened until his return to that city.

 Prince Kalanianaole, Hawaii's delegate to Congress.  May 11, 1920. 

December 3, 1919. The Carlisle News Hits the Press. Bicycles and horses.

Banner headlines appeared in the local press on this day in 1919.

It was a sad end, as we related yesterday.

And already it was noted his wound was not fatal.

And so this phase of the story concluded.

Carlisle, of course, robbed trains, one of the three big means of terrestrial transpiration at the time. . . train, automobile, and horse.

The age of the bicycle, which had already come and gone in North America, but not elsewhere, was still sufficiently recent that these gentlemen turned out, on the same day, with their bikes.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, some well turned out horsewomen posed with their mounts.

Sunday, June 29, 1919. Reminding the readers that the war had ended. . . and alcohol was about to exit. Going to the movies, and the Tour de France.

Folks stopping in here yesterday saw, of course, that the banner headlines on the Germans signing the Versailles Treaty and the Great War ending.  As one of the papers below notes, it would actually require the ratification by the various signing countries to do that, but for most it would come fairly soon.  The U.S. never did ratify it, but instead ratified a treaty that picked out the clauses the Administration of the time liked, that coming after President Wilson had left office.

The US version omitted, famously, the League of Nations.

Anyhow, the big news remained on the front pages of the few newspapers in Wyoming that had Sunday editions.  Most did not.

Both local and national prohibition were also in the news.  The national news was that President Wilson had decided he had no authority to lift wartime prohibition and therefore wasn't going to, for the time being.  It was big, if odd, news in that general Federal prohibition was inevitable at this point, given the recently passed Constitutional amendment.

Locally Monday June 30 was the upcoming last day for alcohol in Wyoming, which made such headlines doubly confusing, as while the national story mattered, it only mattered somewhat and it only mattered if you lived in a place where booze was going to remain legal until the Federal ban hit.  In Wyoming, as with Colorado, that day came earlier.

The Sheridan newspaper ran that as its cover, with an odd racist cartoon that depicted booze in a mistral show fashion.  Not only is it odd to see the topic of the legality of alcohol being discussed, and its disappearance frankly celebrated, but it's really odd to see the press lean on racist stereotypes.

On stereotypes, Sunday was a big day for movie releases and the there were a number of interesting options, including Girls.

The romantic comedy Girls was released on this day in 1919.  Like most silent films, the plot is somewhat complicated.  The interesting thing, perhaps, is that this pre production code film shares a title with the latter skanky trash released under the same name more recently by HBO.  While no more restricted by the law than the latter production, the earlier one didn't plumb the same icky depths.

If you preferred Westerns, The Outcasts of Poker Flat was released, which is a well known silent film.

And the dram Sahara was out as well.  Romantic depiction of the Middle East were a big deal with early movies for some reason.

The title Sahara has been used for movies at least five times, including fairly recently.

If you lived in France, where the relief of the end of the war was particularly felt, this Sunday saw the start of the 1919 Tour de France.  The Tour is of course one of the greatest annual sporting events.  This was the 13th time the race had been run, and the first race since 1914, given the interruption of the war.